Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Zen of Gardening

One can argue that the best part of Spring is gardening. It is a perfect way to say good-bye to the winter blues, and hello to the joy of gardening. Gardening is a perfect way to allow an individual to be in touch with nature. It is a perfect way to slow down, contemplate about life and demonstrate that whatever you sow, you definitely will reap.
Gardening allows us to enjoy the beauty that nature has to give and allows us to enjoy that nature also allows our empty stomachs to be full. We are given a lesson that life itself is fragile and every seed that one plants must be nurtured with love and care. Each time one  fails to water the plants, we also do ourselves a disservice by not allowing the plants enough nourishment. By the same token, each time we throw away a plastic bag into the garbage dump, we also add to the growing garbage problem and give a bigger strain on Planet Earth.
Gardening allows us to reach into ourselves and allows us to form a connection to the planet that is important.
Too often we are lead away to spend hours into habits that do not provide soul nourishment. We spend our lives driving to work and directly bring pollution into the planet. We do a lot of damage to the planet with acts of deforestation and the building of condos over ecological lands.
Gardening allows us to be patient. Practicing the art of patience is so important these days because too many of us do not know how to relax. We are always hurrying to go from place to place, and never really take the time to enjoy nature. Stress is a big killer to many people and we need to do more gardening -- it is a direct route to appreciating Mother Earth and being in touch with life itself.